Name: Apple and Nut Salad
Ingredients: 6 small apples, chopped; 1 cup nuts, chopped; whipped cream

Why it works: Nuts and cream work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 886 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Apple and Nut Salad

Ingredients

6 small apples, chopped
1 cup nuts, chopped
whipped cream

Directions

Chop the apples and nuts.
Mix them thoroughly.
Serve the mixture in apple shells topped with whipped cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Nuts + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together886 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Apple + nutstop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together237 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,089 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the fresh, crisp body and tartness that make up most of the salad.
Nuts: Add crunch and a rich, toasty contrast to the soft apple pieces.
Whipped cream: Adds richness and a soft, creamy topping that balances the tart apple.